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| BEFORE NIGHT FALLS 2000 - USA - 125 min. - Feature, Color Released by -Fine Line Features Director -Julian Schnabel |
| Genre/Type - Drama, Biography [feature], Gay Films, Political Drama Flags - Adult Language, Not For Children, Nudity, Mild Violence, Strong Sexual Content Keywords - AIDS, exile, freedom, homosexual, prison, revolution, Cuba, HIV, illegal-alien, writer Themes - Writer's Life, Political Unrest, Social Injustice, Living With AIDS Tones - Bittersweet, Compassionate, Lyrical, Elegiac, Bleak, Poignant, Gritty Moods - In a Minor Key Set In - Cuba, USA, rural Sound by - Dolby SR Produced by - El Mar Pictures / Grandview Pictures Cast Javier Bardem -- Reinaldo Arenas Olivier Martinez -- Lazaro Gomez Carriles Andrea Di Stefano -- Pepe Malas Johnny Depp -- Bon Bon Johnny Depp -- Lieutenant Victor Sean Penn -- Cuco Sanchez Michael Wincott -- Herberto Zorilla Ochoa Najwa Nimri -- Fina Correa Hector Babenco -- Virgilio Pinera Vito Maria Schnabel -- Teenage Reinaldo Olatz Lopez Garmendia -- Reinaldo's Mother Jerzy Skolimowski � Professor |
| Plot Synopsis For his sophomore feature film effort, visual artist Julian Schnabel chronicles the life of one of Cuba's most charismatic literary voices, the late Reinaldo Arenas. Working with Arenas' friends and family, Schnabel recounts the author's impoverished rural upbringing and the intense love and support he receives from his mother (played by the director's wife, Olatz Lopez Garmendia). As a young man, Arenas (Javier Bardem) is singled out by his teachers and encouraged to further his skills as a writer � no easy task, considering the Castro regime's censorship of any work considered to be subversive or anti-authoritarian. Still, the author manages to smuggle his work out of the country through friends, who arrange for one of his novels to be published in France. Not only persecuted for his creative beliefs, the openly gay Arenas is jailed on a bogus sex charge; he escapes internment only to be captured and persecuted later for his contraband dispatches. In 1980, Arenas is finally allowed to leave Cuba for the United States, where he achieves freedom of expression but not prosperity. Schnabel's first film was another portrait of an artist, 1996's Basquiat; Bardem made his name in several of director Pedro Almodovar's Spanish-language productions. Before Night Falls premiered at the 2000 Venice Film Festival, where it received the Best Actor and Grand Special Jury prizes, and made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Bardem would go on to receive a host of accolades, including an eventual Best Actor nomination at the 2001 Academy Awards. � Michael Hastings |
| Reviews James Berardinelli *** (3 out of 4 stars) It should come as no surprise that, for his second outing behind the camera, Julian Schnabel has once again turned his attention towards an artist (Schnabel's debut was 1996's Basquiat). For the director, who is world-renowned for his painting, the appeal of men like Basquiat and Reinaldo Arenas (the central character of Before Night Falls) is not difficult to understand. The outstanding question is not whether Schnabel is fascinated by his subjects, but whether he can make them as compelling on film to an audience as they are in real life to him. The answer, as least in the case of Before Night Falls, is a qualified "yes" - Schnabel tells a compelling story and his style is polished and confident. Yet, as with Basquiat, he keeps viewers at arm's length. We are observers, not participants, in Arenas's life, and that distance mutes the film's potential effectiveness. The somewhat disjointed narrative, which is pieced together a little like one of the director's paintings, manages to cover episodes throughout Arenas' life, although they are often disconnected. While Schnabel clarifies the time periods by employing captions, some of the fast-forwards are jarring. The first incident we see is Arenas' birth in 1943 rural Cuba. Following glimpses of his poverty-stricken childhood, the scene switches to Holguin in 1958, a place that Arenas describes (in a voiceover) as "a town of 200,000 people and one garbage truck." It is in 1958 that Arenas becomes a revolutionary; by 1964, his status as a homosexual, an intellectual, and a writer has made him anathema to Castro's regime. For the next 15 years, he shuttles back and forth between jail and freedom, finally going into exile in New York City in 1981. Ten years later, at the age of 47, Arenas dies of AIDS. In many ways, it's hard to fault Schnabel's storytelling choices. Since it's impossible to represent a man's complete life in 133 minutes, the filmmaker is content to hit as many highlights as he can. Although the result may leave us wondering a little about what happened during the interim between some scenes, Before Night Falls successfully paints a picture depicting the influences behind Arenas' writing: his difficult childhood, his conflicted feelings for his mother, coming to terms with his sexuality, the revolution in Cuba, and the pain of being an outcast in his own country. Arenas' writing is poignant, lucid, and intelligent - three characteristics that can easily be ascribed to the man who penned it. As one might expect from a painter, Before Night Falls has a distinctive visual style. Schnabel uses images as effectively as words to advance the story. Most are simple - such as an early scene of a rainstorm that turns into a raging torrent of water, a later shot of countless prison inmates dangling bars of soap outside of their jail cells, or flashes of snow falling in New York City - but there is a beauty in this starkness. Nevertheless, because Arenas, as a writer, dealt in words, it is impossible to tell his story without embracing this component. Thus, there is a rather verbose voiceover that incorporates entire passages from Arenas' memoirs. The beauty of the language is such, however, that it rarely, if ever, feels cumbersome or unnecessary - a quality that defines the mundane voiceover in the average mainstream feature. At the center of Before Night Falls is actor Javier Bardem. With the film moving rapidly through the years and from location to location, Arenas becomes the only constant character, so it is up to Bardem to hold the film together. He gets some help from an effective supporting cast, including the likes of Sean Penn (whose presence in a cameo is jarring) and Johnny Depp (who has two small parts, as a transvestite and an authoritarian guard), but this is Bardem's show, and Schnabel's ability to recreate Arenas' life rests squarely on his shoulders. Fortunately, the Spanish-born actor, who has previously appeared in the films of Bigas Luna and Pedro Almodovar (he played one of the leads in Live Flesh), is up to the challenge. This is a startlingly real and believable performance, with Bardem being credible as Arenas from his early twenties through his late forties. Before Night Falls received its world premiere at the 2000 Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. It was lauded with critical praise at both venues (in large part, I think, because critics enjoy movies about artists, especially writers), taking a number of top prizes in Venice. Unlike Ed Harris' Pollock, another film about a marquee 20th century art figure, Before Night Falls gives us some insight into the lead character's mindset, rather than simply regurgitating the facts of his biography. It is an intriguing and sporadically powerful motion picture with a stellar central performance. � 2000 James Berardinelli Awards Best Actor (nom) -Javier Bardem -2000 -Academy AFI's Top 10 Films of the Year (win) - -2000 -American Film Institute Best Actor - Drama (nom) -Javier Bardem -2000 -Golden Globe #6 Film of the Year (win) - -2000 -National Board of Review Best Actor (win) -Javier Bardem -2000 -National Board of Review Special Recognition for Freedom of Expression (win) - -2000 -National Board of Review Best Actor (win) -Javier Bardem -2000 -National Society of Film Critics Best Actor (Volpi Cup) (win) -Javier Bardem -2000 -Venice International Film Festival Special Jury Prize (win) -Julian Schnabel -2000 -Venice International Film Festival |
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